Emerging role of 2-year hispanic-serving institution (HSIs) in advanced technological education (ATE): Challenges, opportunities, and impacts for growing the United States technical workforce

Abstract

To remain competitive in the global economy and meet the country's anticipated shortage of 5 million technically credentialed workers, the United States must produce skilled technicians with a high level of domain-specific technical knowledge. Community colleges are essential to solving the skilled technician workforce supply problem because many skilled technical jobs do not require a bachelor's degree for entry but do require technical credentials. According to federal data, half the students earning a certificate in 2016-17 received their credentials from community colleges. Despite declining community college enrollments, Hispanic student enrollment at community colleges nearly doubled between 2001 and 2017, increasing by 98% to reach 25% of the overall 2017 enrollment. However, Hispanics are currently underrepresented in STEM Job clusters, at 7% (1.2M) of employed adults in STEM jobs (17.3M) as compared to 16% (21M) of all employed adults (131M), where a substantial share (35%) of this STEM workforce does not have a bachelor's degree. Moreover, the current Hispanic composition of the STEM workforce (7%) does not reflect the current (18%, 62M) or future (predicted at 28%, 111.2M) Hispanic population of the United States. Looking to the future, the United States can help address underrepresentation in the STEM workforce, by leveraging the more than 20 million young people of color, including Hispanic youth, who have the potential to enter STEM fields and close the current gaps. Given the nation's urgent need for a well-trained, domestic STEM-capable workforce, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) are essential points of access; 46% of all HSIs are 2-year colleges. The goal of the HSI Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Hub is to build capacity and leadership at 2-year HSIs for developing competitive ATE proposals to NSF to prepare technicians in advanced technologies that drive the American economy.